Iskander Reedwright

Iskander Reedwright was the most gifted Reader the Reed Archive had admitted in a generation, and he knew it, which was the trouble. Archivist Theodric took him as a pupil, and for six years he copied, catalogued and was bored. In the sealed press beneath the Archive lie the few Saerim books that survived the Sundering. Iskander forged Theodric's seal, read one of them through in a night, and in the morning could call fire into his palm. That was the first offence. The second was worse. To pay the debts of a young man who liked good wine more than his stipend allowed, he sold a copied page of the Archive's tomb-surveys to a stranger in the Lamp of Reeds. The stranger was a tomb-robber. The robbers went into the Tomb of Kings with Iskander's map in their hands. He was struck from the Rolls. He has not left Sandmere since, partly from shame and partly because Steward Ysabeau has made it very clear that he is not to. He teaches the children of the reed-cutters their letters for his supper, and he practises sorcery on the riverbank at night, where no one but the herons can see.